On 16 August 1934, the Irish writer James Joyce and his wife Nora arrived in Luxembourg as tourists and stayed for a week at the Grand Hôtel Brasseur, near the old town. During his stay, Joyce wrote a dozen letters and postcards which allow us to retrace his steps and to perceive the city of Luxembourg through the eyes of the author of Dubliners.
The exhibition first presents Luxembourg City as a tourist destination in the 1930s. It focuses on Joyce’s correspondence, in which the lifting of the ban on Ulysses in the United States was a central issue, and on the importance of Radio Luxembourg for the singing career of her son George. The exhibition also highlights the role of Aline Mayrisch-de Saint Hubert in the publication of an important study on the famous author by the young French intellectual Armand Petitjean. Finally, it relates the reception of Joyce by Luxembourg journalists and authors and shows how the Grand Duchy with its rivers ended up populating the pages of the famous Finnegans Wake, published in 1939.